Cherished by The King |BxB|

Chapter 29

Celian's POV

Blood.

Nothing more, but blood.

I could feel it on my cold skin, spreading across the moss-covered floor like a snake. It was sweltering and warm, and it made me gag every time I inhaled. My breathing was distorted, the way you just knew that my lungs were punctured.

I wasn't even awake anymore.

Still in pain, though. Still living through all of the recent memories inside my head, crying and screaming for them to stop. No more, I pleaded.

But despite all my prayers, they continued to haunt me; the smell of my own bodily fluids trying to poison me.

"You should tie him to the tree, no?" one of the evil voices suggested, earning as malevolent chuckles as was he. 

"Don't be a brick, Roe. He's not even moving anymore," I listened carefully, trying to get sense out of the words that felt so distant. At first, I had gained a little bead of hope, but it was quickly smashed into pieces as I realized the sarcasm in the man's rough tone. Not to mention the kick that I felt instantly after, most likely one of them making sure whether I was still indeed immobilized.

Which I was.

And now with a broken rib as well.

Not a sound left my mouth, my body was so tired. But the tears that poured down my cheeks never stopped flowing.

"I didn't assume he was going to run away, idiot. Simply for the... visuals," the voice that had once spoken before started again, instantly making a pile of puke rise into my throat. Please, please no.

I couldn't— I couldn't take it anymore. But my prayers were never answered. They did it again and again. They hurt me, wounded me— but every time, I healed.

Again, and again.

Blood everywhere, blood on the ground, in the air, and on my body.

Every-fucking-where.

I just wanted this nightmare to be over— why do I have to live through it dozens of times?!

Why won't it just fucking stop?!

I woke up with a jump, my body sweating and trembling. I wasn't anyhow aware of my surroundings at first; the fresh smell of blood and doom lingering in the air. For a short moment, I was that little boy in that burning village, bones and soul shattered.

I could feel their touch and hands on me, straining and bludgeoning my body. The pain, ache, and misery.

The tears on my face, and—

The blood running down my legs... but? I was frantically patting my frame, chest, stomach, and eventually my thighs. At the end of the search, I didn't feel any blood, anywhere. But, I knew that there had to be, and I remembered it.

Was this— was this even real?

Did I just imagine everything? Was this just one of those bad dreams?  But I haven't had them since...

The memories flooded my mind, each at a time. From the day I got back to the Kingdom, the countless lonely nights, the sudden hunk of responsibilities as a newly crowned Royal, befriending Ezekiel, visiting Viorna's Castle, the war, the kidnapping... and meeting the King of vampires.

My mate.

And then I realized, I was back home, laying in Lynx's bed just after mating with him. Comfort flushed my mind, trying to calm the storming sea of bad flashbacks, though quite unsuccessfully. Still panicking, my heart racing, and zero oxygen meeting my sore lungs.